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What LG’s acquisition of webOS means for its open source projects

HP isn't completely abandoning webOS.

LG announced yesterday that it would be acquiring webOS from HP to use in LG smart televisions. The company has inherited all of the rights to the source code for webOS, including documentation and engineers, as well as all of its related websites. But what about projects like Open webOS and webOS Ports?

As we now know, the cloud services division of webOS will remain at HP, along with some of the related patents, while LG gets the rest. Martin Risau, senior vice president of webOS for HP, told Ars that from here on out, “LG is totally free to do whatever they want to do” to integrate webOS however it sees fit.

“Open source will be alive and well at LG," added Sam Chang, vice president of Smart TV at LG. "We think that’s a really important part of this transaction. When you think about the loyal development community out there and the need for a robust ecosystem to support smart TV, it’s really a perfect fit.” Of course, LG will have to make changes to webOS to optimize it for use with a remote.

Risau told us that the company will continue working on the free JavaScript application framework Enyo because “it benefits both companies." Chang added that, “We do believe both open source and Web technology is the best way to minimize fragmentation and enable cross-connectivity to multiple devices." Interestingly enough, Open webOS had initially been established by HP to further the development of the operating system, in spite of a lack of dedicated hardware.

It’s important to note that this acquisition isn't a total surprise to either HP or LG. A version of Open webOS, called the Professional Edition, had been circulating around back in October 2012, when webOS Nation first reported on rumors that LG would be making a webOS-enabled TV. Its success would require a serious investment in applications—ones that could be made with Enyo. The apps would need to include services like Netflix, CinemaNow, Pandora, and Vudu, which are all available on almost every set-top box, and natively on TVs from rival companies like Samsung. HP intends to stay involved in the development of Enyo, citing its relevance to its app catalog.

When asked about LG's acquisition of webOS, Tom King, project leader for webOS Ports, was excited and optimistic. "They reached out right away and said, ‘nothing’s changed, you’re still dealing with the same people… we’ll still be interacting with you guys and making this happen.’ I take that as a very positive step,” he explained. “It appeared from my reading that Open webOS is still going to be an open source project that they’re actively going to contribute to and participate in. I’m encouraged that we've got a new driver.”

Update: This article has been edited to add that HP will only continue to work on the Enyo framework. Ars regrets the error.

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